Gammelgården 

My friends and I went to Gammelgården (old, small farm) yesterday for the Annie's Coffee event. Annie is the daughter of early immigrants who lived in the former parsonage of the Swedish church on the property—the first Swedish Lutheran church in Minnesota dating back to 1854—four years before Minnesota got its statehood. I have been there on several occasions, but it was a new experience for Laurey, Nancy and Sue. The drive up to Scandia was really pretty with the beautiful fall foliage on either side of the highway. 

Sue bought some Swedish socks in the gift shop because it was a bit chillier outside than she realized.

Laurey and Sue. At this event we celebrated Laurey's birthday! The Swedish ladies sang a birthday song to her in Swedish.

Yours truly and Nancy

On display in the party room were paintings of traditional Swedish costumes and other  treasures.

 

Coffee and pastries were served on pretty dinnerware.

Lynn, the tour guide, tells our group the struggles and triumphs of the early Swedish settlers.

First Swedish Lutheran church in Minnesota, Services continue to be held there.

Inside the church

Our Swedish ancestors planned well before leaving their homeland, deciding which tools and supplies to bring. This is inside the barn.

Laurey, Sue and Nancy inside the parsonage kitchen

The table set for a lunch. Notice the Swedish Bible on the left corner.

Inside the Stuga (a typical peasant house in Sweden). I love the design of the little home. I think it would make a wonderful cabin .

One of the two built in beds in the stuga.

The stuga kitchen with fireplace in the corner. The table can fold up tight against the wall, using the orange clip seen above the posters to keep it in place.

After stopping in Marine on St. Croix, we drove the the countryside to find Sal's, a restaurant out in the middle of corn fields. We sure enjoyed the delicious food! After lunch, we went to Willernie where I showed them my cousin Pat's house. Next: White Bear Lake to have some ice cream. It was a fun-filled day!

More progress in our office remodeling . . .

When I arrived this morning, our stairway was closed.

 



I didn't realize the smells that come from the torches cutting through steel.

 





 

And now this bottom section of stairs is gone.

 

 

Today we have had dust, pounding, scraping, the smell of torches cutting away steel, new doors installed in our new entrance, and more mess. I wore earplugs and a mask for part of the day.

Remodeling Update

Construction is still full tilt in our office. More and more spaces are being altered, but nothing is finished yet. We have dust all over everything. It's been interesting.

Earlier this week they cut the whole in our entry way that will become our new entrance.

Looking inside our new reception area

The construction crew arrived at 4 o'clock this morning so they could do more of the noisy work before our workday started. They have been very considerate. When I arrived, they were putting up plastic "drapes" to keep more of the dust corralled while they cut away a big part of the soffit.

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Inside the cordoned off area, one can see the cut-outs in the soffit. 

Notice the bottom section of the stairway. This afternoon the carpet was removed from it. Tomorrow or Friday, that section will be cut away and soon will be attached 180 degrees from its present place. That will make everything ready for a new wall to go up next to the south side of the stairway, and the floor to be filled in above it. So long, impressive lobby.

This was our lobby before any construction began.

American Swedish Institute Tour

Today three of my friends and I toured the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. It is also known as the Turnblad Mansion. The mansion was built in 1908 after Swan Turnblad (a newspaper man) and his wife and daughter had visited their homeland of Sweden and Europe where Swan fell in love with castles. Upon returning to America, he hired a builder to create a castle on the beautiful Park Avenue, the only paved road in Minneapolis at the time. Eventually the Turnblad's donated this home to the Swedish people of Minneapolis. It is very beautiful—both inside and out.

This little room is inside one of the turrets. Seated are my friends Kathy, Nancy C and Nancy R

This gorgeous stained glass window overlooks the Grand Hall.

Kathy, Nancy R and Nancy C next to one of the many ceramic fireplaces.

I love the ceilings in this mansion. This photo does not do it justice. The flowers and motifs are 3-D, and are made of polycom, then adhered to the plaster before it dried. It was then painted. 

Check out the carved woodwork! (Double click to enlarge for more detail.)

Nancy C lifting the krumkake iron lid. This is in the kitchen.

Nancy R and me

This gorgeous chandelier is in the dining room. All of the light fixtures are original to the home.

The music room

The salon

After touring the museum, we had lunch in FIKA, the adjoining restaurant. This lunch of meatballs and mashed potatoes, with lingonberries and mustard sauce was delicious! It was topped with cucumbers. 

Nancy R had a beautiful cheese/vegetable sandwich on Swedish rye bread. She said it was really good.

Kathy had a brussel spout dish with figs. She really liked it.

Office update

The carpet in our lobby was ripped out this week. 

The doors to our small conference room were removed. This little room will become our new reception room in a few weeks. The opening to the left is the hallway leading to our new dining room and kitchen. There are a very small number of offices that have not been impacted by this remodeling. We have been smelling fresh paint and listening to power tools. It's very weird.

Family Gathering

Heidi, Marshall and Corinne flew into Minneapolis late Friday night. Saturday we gathered at the barn with most of our Minnesota relatives and some family friends. Cousin Linda even drove up from Chicago! And Troy came in from India the previous night. It was a beautiful day, and we enjoyed getting to eat and visit together. My cousin Pat came to the rescue and asked for my camera to take photos. Thank you, Pat, these capture our time together.

Janet and Aurelia in the foreground; Pat and Peder standing behind them

L to R: Chad, yours truly, Peder Doug, Levi, Lynn

Marshall and Heidi

Heidi, Chad, and yours truly

L to R: Janet, Linda, Leo, and Steve

In the foreground is Aurelia. L to R: Annika, Felix, Deborah, and Keith

This is Heidi's high school friend, Julia, with her husband and two children.

Andrea holding Corinne, with Marshall

Troy and Donna

L to R: Pudge, David and Jerry

I love this photo of Sarah and Peder

Corinne turned 7 months Saturday. We celebrated with this cake.

Revelation: Felix loves babies. He just loved holding Corinne, and he was good with her.

It was really nice to see everyone and Heidi and I were so glad people could come to meet Corinne for the first time. 

And the tree is gone.

With no takers on our office tree, it was cut down on Friday. The leaders of our office requested no photos be taken during the cutting since it was a sad situation. I respected that and waited until the tree was down and the pot was outside.

Our lobby is no longer beautiful.

Only the stump was visible.

The remodeling continues . . .

We have not found anyone to adopt our office tree. In the meantime, one of my friends brought in his copy of The Lorax by Dr, Seuss, and his stuffed animal of the Lorax. 

Our furniture has been put into storage. We have red paper covering the hallways and stairways to protect carpeting. This afternoon part of the back stairway railing got cut away. There were sparks!

The railing leaning against the wall was previously attached on the black line on the lower left.